The existence of Dead Space 3‘s ‘Awakened’ DLC was actually revealed well before the game’s launch, but that didn’t mean we actually had any idea what it was. Now, we do — it’s supposedly meant to be a whole pile scarier than the main game itself, and it should only be tackled after the main game is completed.

The DLC sees Isaac returning to CMS Terra Nova’s Conning Tower, which has been overrun by a Necromorph-worshipping cult of human scarification practitioners. New human and Necromorph enemies will feature, and Isaac will make at least one trip — possible entirely imagined, due to the dementia — to the Necromorph moon.

Source: VG247 and Joystiq

Dead Space 3 is not the clucking fuster its preamble suggested it might be. A lot of its more contentious ideas work on a few levels. The Bench is cool. A lot of the creations that come out of it are redundant, but you can have fun with it and fun is good. Shooting at other guys with guns isn’t that bad, either. They don’t take up much… spaaace and for the most part, it’s pretty close to the Marker the whole way through (which is saying something. This game is impressively long).

Co-op was the big one, though. Having another gun at your back just doesn’t seem very conducive to crapping your space suit. And, you know, it’s not.

Rumours flying last night that EA had cancelled the Dead Space franchise altogether following supposed poor sales of Dead Space 3 have been squashed by EA this morning.

The rumours, posted initially by Videogamer, quoted an inside source who claimed that EA had visited Visceral Studios to deliver the bad news and halt all work on Dead Space 4.

Now, EA have responded to the rumour. Videogamer’s article has been updated with a statement from EA which reads “While we have not announced sales for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game and the franchise remains an important IP to EA.” Gamsutra are quoting an EA source who say that this rumour is “patently false”.

So there you go! Dead Space 4 is probably still okay — although Army of Two developers Visceral Studios Montreal did recently suffer severe layoffs.

Source: Videogamer, Gamasutra

Though it may have been somewhat derivative, the original Dead Space was nevertheless a superb survival horror experience. With subsequent entries in the series, including last week’s Dead Space 3, developer Visceral Games has embraced more action oriented gameplay. Needless to say, many fans of the series are yet to embrace the change. Now, a writer who contributed to the original Dead Space is speaking out in defence of the move.

Antony Johnston describes the more explosive approach as “a necessary evil in order to broaden the fan base”. Given that he also concedes a lack of interest in the sequels due to their “greater emphasis on big action”, it’s tempting to conclude that Johnston isn’t entirely invested in his defence of the new direction. Mind you, he isn’t advocating a return to the original formula either, as that might involve having “the same game on a different ship each time”.

Johnston (perhaps predictably) concludes that his former colleagues have “done an admirable job” of striking a balance between horror and action.

Source: Now Gamer

I’ve got a couple of disclaimers to make before I wax lyrical about Dead Space 3. Firstly, I’m a massive fanboy of the series, with the original making it into my top 5 of all time. Secondly, I’m a bit of a horror aficionado; if a movie doesn’t have cats jumping out of closets, ghosts revealed in mirrors or a shower-curtain reveal scene, it won’t make it into my collection of 300 horror DVDs and Blu-rays.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I can explain why I think Dead Space 3 is easily the best in the series, despite the fact that the last third of the game won’t have you reaching for the Valium quite as much as its predecessors…

So, you all remember how Dead Space 3 supports microtransactions, so that those who can’t be bothered grinding to gather resources can just pay to win? And you remember how someone figured out a really quick and cheap way to gather said resources? And we were all like “lol EA” and rushed off to exploit it before the first title update removed it?

Well, Visceral Games isn’t going to patch that out, EA representative Jino Talens told Gamefront.

“The resource-earning mechanic in Dead Space 3 is not a glitch. We have no plans to issue a patch to change this aspect of the game. We encourage players to explore the game and discover the areas where resources respawn for free,” he said.

“We’ve deliberately designed Dead Space 3 to allow players to harvest resources by playing through the game. For those that wish to accumulate upgrades instantly, we have enabled an optional system for them to buy the resources at a minimal cost ($1-$3).”

Well. How about that.

Source: Gamefront

Dead Space 3 has been out for barely 48 hours (globally) and already someone has found an easily exploitable glitch in the game that will allow you to farm all the resources EA was hoping you’d pay real money for.

While you can’t access the glitch until Chapter 8 of the game, it is ridiculously easy to accomplish, simply involving walking in and out of a room. How did QA miss that?

The video below has been up for two days already, so there’s no telling when EA will get around to patching this glitch out. So if this is your thing, you should check out the helpful video below.

Visceral and EA have revealed that Dead Space 3‘s first DLC will launch in March.

The DLC, called ‘Awakened’, will feature some of the “darkest chapters as the Necromorph battles become even more gruesome and terrifying than ever before”.

Australian pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but US pricing is set at $9.99/800 MS Points, so it’s a reasonable bet we’ll get it for $15.

Dead Space 3 launches tomorrow — PC players haven’t been given early access, so we’ll get stuck into it tomorrow and get you a review as soon as we can.

Source: VG247

There’s been a lot of coverage so far on the game play of Dead Space 3 and the horror aspects, but not so much on the story side of things. EA have released a trailer correcting this now though, which they’re calling, aptly enough, the story trailer.

Seems as though we are to rescue Agent Ellie Langford and her team from an uncharted planet and almost certain doom. How very heroic of us! Seems there’s also some kind of villain talking of highfalutin’ concepts like ‘rebirth’ and the ‘contaminating touch’ of mankind. He’s also British, so you know he’s a bad dude.

It’s very action-movie, this trailer. I’d probably see this movie, personally. What do you think of this, the story trailer? Let us know!

At a recent EA event, games.on.net had the chance to sit down with Visceral’s Dave Woldman, senior producer on Dead Space 3. Woldman discussed Visceral’s approach to horror, how they’re planning to keep the game scary, and how truly successful horror is about the absence of combat, and more about what you don’t show rather than what you do.

Last week, we revealed that Dead Space 3 would be getting a straight port to PC with no extra features. The PC gaming community went wild, accusing Visceral Games of everything from laziness to stupidity — so executive producer Steve Papoutsis has come forward to defend their position.

“It’s confusing to me that this question even comes up,” Papoutsis has said to Shack News. “It’s by no means any less important to us; it gets a lot of attention. The PC is a very different platform. As developers, you want to deliver an experience that’s as similar as possible on different platforms.

“At our studio, we’ve always made console games. The biggest thing is we want to make sure the quality of the experience is consistent across all platforms so we don’t have one userbase saying it’s better on their system (…) It’s a confusing question and I hope my answer brings a little bit of light to it. We seem a little bit discredited for the amount of effort that goes into it, quite honestly.”

“We want it to be great on all systems, that’s our approach.”

How do you feel now, sportsracers? Seems like they’re taking an attitude of equality over favouring the PC master race, while still keeping in mind that the PC is a different system with different inputs and requirements. Do you feel placated? Or do you still thirst for blood? Make sure you let us know!

Source: Shack News

Perhaps the star of Dead Space 3‘s latest ‘Take Down the Terror’ trailer is meant to be Isaac, or maybe even the Necromorphs, but confusingly enough it ends up being the background music: a weird heavy remix of In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. Still, there’s a bunch of pretty CGI and game footage as well, so there’s something for everybody.

Dead Space 3 hits shelves next Thursday, February 7.